Users may operate computing devices and use computing services, such as an electronic signature service, to exchange and electronically sign documents such as contracts. In many situations, the users may be members of different organizations or located in multiple jurisdictions that have different attestation requirements around what constitutes binding signatures in a contract or agreement. In some situations, users in different organizations, such as different businesses, groups, or departments, may be subject to different attestation requirements. Many organizations need to collect signatures from members in geographically disparate locations and also need to witness the signatures taking place in real time. Additionally, the organizations may require a record of signatures and information supporting the signatures. For example, a business may have an internal notarization process, however the business may have office locations that lack a notary. In this example, an employee of the business may be required to sign a document that requires a notarized or witnessed signature, but that employee may work in an office without a notary.
Also, for example, a user may be located in the United States of America and another user may be located in the European Union. In comparison, the laws of certain jurisdictions in the United States of America may require that an electronic signature be created in the presence of a witness, such as a notary, whereas the laws of the European Union may only require a digital signature issued by a European agency. As such, for the electronic signatures of the users to be binding in both jurisdictions, electronic signatures on the contract may need to be witnessed to meet the different jurisdictional requirements.
Although the computing services allow the users to exchange and electronically sign the contract, the computing services do not automatically record the contract execution proceedings or provide for witnessing of signatures in order to meet the different organizational and jurisdictional attestation requirements. Instead, it is necessary for the users to know the requirements and ensure that electronic signatures for a contract are witnessed and/or recorded as needed to meet these requirements. For example, the contract may need to be manually modified to include proper electronic signature fields for a witness (e.g., a notary) that meet the different organizational or jurisdictional requirements. However, it may be incumbent on the users to arrange for the presence of the witness and modify the contract to and/or record the execution proceedings. Further, even if known, the users may need to invest substantial time and resources to draft the contract to account for witness attestation fields and alter and/or record the contract execution proceedings.